Rockets BLOWOUT Jazz DESPITE Turnovers As Jabari Smith Jr. SHINES & Kevin Durant FACILITATES
Rockets BLOWOUT Jazz DESPITE Turnovers As Jabari Smith Jr. SHINES & Kevin Durant FACILITATES
Houston Rockets torch Utah Jazz behind Jabari Smith Jr.’s 31-point eruption, but is the offensive turnaround sustainable with 27 turnovers on the night?
Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) unpacks the Rockets’ 125-105 blowout win, spotlighting Smith Jr.’s two-way dominance and Kevin Durant’s best passing performance yet with a season-high 12 assists. The breakdown covers enhanced ball movement, off-ball cutting, and newfound offensive creativity that powered Houston’s attack—even as sloppy turnovers threatened to derail the victory. Key segments include Amen Thompson’s perfect shooting game, Reed Sheppard’s sharpshooting off the bench, and the ongoing struggles of Dorian Finney-Smith. With playoff hopes on the horizon, can Ime Udoka’s squad clean up mistakes and carry this offensive momentum forward?
Stay locked in for sharp analysis on how the Houston Rockets are transforming their offense and what it means for the road ahead.
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34 Comments
Rockets just love the number 27 when it comes to bad things. 27 turnovers tonight, 27 missed threes…I’ll leave it at that. Good win Rockets.
Honestly, play Jeff Green over DFS. Better 3 point shooter and is not too shabby on defense.
You will win if you don't just play KD and use all the team's strengths together. But if you only work on KD, you will lose. You should make Alpi, JAbari, Amen and Reed feel as valuable as KD in this team. This feeling will increase their self-confidence.That's the first thing the coach should do.In the meantime, it is necessary to minimize these ball losses.If any other team were in place of UTAH, they would not forgive these losses.
Losing Tate forces Ime to play better offensive players like Josh Okogie and Aaron Holiday off the bench. Rockets won by 20 points but held +30 point lead in 3rd before another poor showing in 4th. DFS was -5 and the only Rockets player in blowout loss to be a negative on the floor. Still say that 2028 FRP + DFS + Tate/Jeff should have been traded to Pacers for Ben Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson + SRP at trade deadline – Stone is just not a wartime GM.
But real story was that Jabari was a BEAST again last night! 37% 3P for the season is career high – must continue becoming 6'11 Klay Thompson instead of Walmart KD.
Big Bob. Just be patience JSjr! Point guard
If they play the way you want them to play and can't not turn it over, that is not the coach's fault. And if they could play like this without turning it over against teams that aren't tanking then we would be talking about how to beat the thunder, but instead we're talking about how to set the team up for success next year
I don’t care about this win because I’m looking down the road and thinking bigger picture. This game pissed me off more than any win because of all the bonehead turnovers, stupid decision making, butterfingers, not boxing out and getting defensive rebounds and not hustling to get loose balls. I’m a big fan but this team as a whole plays so dam goofy. Respectfully Jackson Amen cannot have a good game with 6 turnovers and the same with KD assists 🤔. We need to get rid of Tari because he’s a walking turnover and always misses defensive assignments. Tara always looks lost 😂. Clint Capela is so 🗑️ that when I think of his play I don’t even get mad because he’s so bad that it’s comical 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂. How the hell he’s been in the NBA this long and can’t make a simple layup. His touch around the rim is 🗑️ 😂😂😂dam smdh. Even though I don’t think KD messages from burner account were leaked they are accurate, it was his way of telling his team what they need to work on without the pushback from a young mind, but as good as KD is he needs to tighten up on his handle. Finally, I’m questioning Ime coaching abilities 🤔
I am at the point with Amen that you cannot tell him to be one thing, he is just a versatile player. I don't think he'll ever be a true PG but you can't watch this game and tell me it's impossible for him to excel as a point forward? The turnovers are bad but that can be fixed. Him and Reed as our creators for the future I am very confident in.
I forgot to mention that also Jabari, Amen and Sengun played like 🗑️ as well😂. Too many dam turnovers. Reed just need more playing time at the point guard position.
When will Reed be free from the shackles of Udoka?
DFS was legitimately a disaster signing, he isn't an NBA player anymore. Really sad
Amens stat line is fools gold. Until u see him do that when being guarded by a center I don’t want to hear about Amen anymore. No coincidence they score 125 when the center roaming strategy isn’t used on them.
Well when you have 2 or 3 7 footers out there stumbling bumbling falling down throwing the ball away that’s what you end up with they should put Clint capela out there too and let him in on the fun all while you have your future point gaurd standing over there in a corner or on the bench
Hopefully Jabari Smith continue to play well he can do it he just needs to play more consistently.
This wind doesn’t mean that much. The jazz are tanking. The rockers need to figure out how to be good teams on a consistent basis. This really doesn’t mean that much in the playoffs. They gonna get knocked out in the first round if they don’t get it together.
We beat a team thats trying to lose.
The movement was great where was this all season
I know it's probably due to your massive passion for the Rockets but I often find your comments after any losses very negative. I get upset with the team when they have losses like the one we had w/ the most recent Knicks game but was able to recovered quickly and found positive energy focusing on lesson learned and what could've done and adjustments to make moving forward. Let's go. Rockets!
This team has made us so numb. Unless they rip off 22 straight I have no faith in ime an even then.
We are in a sad sad situation, soo much denial man it sucks. This year we don't have a isolated player to put all the blame on so we are just making excuses for bad play and bad organizational management past the all star break. The rockets organization has failed us, we should have a team that is ready to compete for a championship not struggling. IE. the rockets should be at or better than the pistons plain and simple.
Yall ease off my boy DFS man
I love the pace and motion we’ve seen since the All star break.
I thought Reed's defense was pretty terrible last night, but man. They almost resemble an actual offense when he's on the court. It's nice.
Jackson, why do you think Rockets cannot replicate the offense and looks they had in the first 20 games?
Can't be just because we are missing Stevo, right?
Great all around performance from Alpi ❤
If Ime is going to have a blindspot for defense only players like DFS (and Tate), then just sign Ben Simmons. Simmons is younger, longer, more athletic, better rebounder, better scorer, better playmaker and better defender than DFS. Ben Simmons would also complement Reed, JD and Aaron Holiday much more than either DFS or Tate. That said, I am on board with playing Isaiah Crawford and/or Tristen Newton over DFS. If DFS is not 100% then rest him so he can contribute at 100% in playoffs.
Rockets crushed defensive boards but lost the OREB battle again. OREB leads to 2nd chance points which used to be Rockets superpower.
as a houston fan, this wasn’t impressive. do this against the Knicks, Celtics, and Detroit
Turnovers are mainly because we dont have smart players.
Athletic players do not develop basic fundementals because they used to solve problems with their atletisizm.
I was joking that maybe Ime is going to surprise teams in the playoffs by starting Reed. Catch em off guard lol. That’s literally the only viable reason to not play him when he’s shown he can drive, and dish, and shoot.
Clowns blaming KD for that Knicks loss just don't know basketball. I was frustrated at his turnovers late as well, but he came in when they were only 6 up!!! While he was on the bench they were up 18 points and lost that lead to 6. How is KD to blame for losing that lead when 12 points were while he was on the bench. How fucken annoying for him to have a rest and have to come back in and save the team because they can't hold a lead he helped create. He was a plus 12 ffs. Reed and sengun were on at the start of that quarter when they lost 12 points of that lead, that's why they were benched, KD should be able to rest!!
Alp will get traded this summer probably..
Jazz are one of worst defensive teams in NBA, so let's not get too excited about the new off ball movement, increased pace resulting in +120 points – unless the sample size increases. But it was around this time last season that the Double Big lineup was being used more purposefully so fingers crossed.
They just beat a crappy team. 27 turnovers is ridiculous. Reed should have been in starting lineup as soon as Fred went down.